SUBMISSIONS

Submissions are accepted on a regular basis, year-round.Can include, short stories, essays, poetry and prose.Must not exceed 3,000 words.Must be written by a current ESA student, or alumni.Submissions are accepted: e.s.say.says@gmail.com

Thursday, 22 January 2015

Chains

By: Alana Staszczyszyn

Oh, I remember that night...

A crisp and cool New Year’s Eve,

I remember.

We’d thought to make it another memorable night.

Yes, I think we accomplished our goal.

I remember...

Amidst that grimy, grooving beat,

Beneath the blaring, blazing lights.

A night beyond all other nights,

For, I discovered, you had my heart in chains.

You had hooked my heart

and reeled me in.

Brought me time and time before,

time and time again,

to our eternal paradise.

And here we were again that night,

dancing beneath the foggy lights,

you brought me home to heaven once again.

I think that, there, that night, they fell:

my chains of liberation.

You held my body,

we moved in time,

I thought, perhaps, you might be mine,

and just then a shadow appeared,

whispering softly into my ear,

that I had your heart in chains.

I remember then, my heart broke free,

as I ripped the chains that bound me to my fears.

They whipped into the air,

and soared across the floor,

and there I was, dancing,

dancing with the chains of liberation.

You watched me weave them round my arms,

between my hands, my fingers,

my neck, my lips,

and just then I felt your desire,

thick within the room,

to grab me there and hold me down

and draw me close to you.

Yes, my darling, I was free,

No longer a pet of some distant fear,

but rather a pet to do your bidding.

And I remember when you wrapped me up in chains,

and I gave myself entirely to you.

You tied my hands

and bound my feet,

Leaving only my lips free to caress your neck...

Oh, you treated me so well,

Tending to every gasp and moan and sigh,

And as you held me down and kissed my neck,

You whispered such pretty things into my ear.

I wasn’t sure if you said “I fucking love you,”

or,

“I love fucking you,”

but, truth be told,

I think the message was merely the same in those frantic moments anyways.

And oh, it really doesn’t matter which one I heard.

For those moments we shared were so much more than just words;

I remember how we lay for countless hours,

Never making a noise,

Never uttering a word,

For words could never do the moment justice

to describe the way I lost myself to you.

We’d lay, our faces buried into each other’s neck,

for several seconds or minutes or sometimes even hours...

and I think we both knew what we wanted to say.

Those sacred words,

hanging so silently over our heads, oh,

you could feel them in the air, whispering,

“I love you!”

Yet, in the end, I’m not so sure it would have been necessary.

No, truthfully, we’d said it time and time before,

Time and time again,

Through the way we’d rock our bodies, in time,

to the designs we’d etch on each other’s skin.

The truth is, with every breath we breathed together,

and every careful, tender touch,

and as you listened to my every movement,

my every silent thought,

my every emotion,

we said “I love you,”

again and again,

yes, as you ran your fingers along my skin,

and felt me move beneath you.

But you see, my love,

This is the mistake they all make,

as they watch me bow before your feet;

To them I am a slave,

to them I am not free,

to them I ever wear your brand

and have lost to you my dignity.

But the truth is much more gracious.

What they do not know is that

within your chains I roam so free:

free to live,

free to love,

free to be the highest I can be.

No, you see,

I love the way you love to own me,

and I love the way you show your love to me,

through the way you cradle me in your arms,

and the way you pull me closeand kiss me in your sleep.

And I love how you bite my neck when we make love,

and I love the way you love to possess me,

and within your iron grip, your chains,

I reach far beyond what they care to see or believe.

And you see, my darlings, that this story does not have just one side,